'If the Internet age has taught us anything, it’s that guarding videos viewable by lots of people is going to be a challenge. Phone cameras, the apparent source of the Louisiana State clip, allow students to surreptitiously record just about anything, and granting hundreds or thousands of students access to a video – password protected or not – obviously invites distribution.

'Kevin Carman, dean of Louisiana State’s College of Science, said he’s concerned about the brave new world that manifested itself in an attack on one of his colleagues.

'“I think that’s one of the real challenges of the generation we’re in now – of the information age,” he said. “We want to make information available, but this is an example of where it can be distorted in a way that does not serve academia well.”'